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December 29, 2005
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Thursday's Links
Activism
Tom DeLay's back in the news - see news item #3 for details. We're getting pretty sick of writing about Tom DeLay's questionable ethics behavior. So, you be the judge of who's in DeLay's pocket. The Public Campaign Action Fund has created a chart of member of Congress, and how much they are "in" with DeLay": How often they voted with him, how much DeLay's PAC has given their campaign, how much they've donated to DeLay, etc. Check out the list here. Find out where your representatives rank, and then contact them, if need be, to find out why they associate themselves with unethical people like DeLay. We need to make it completely unacceptable for anyone associated with DeLay to continue to serve in Congress.
News
"I'm Learning New Things Every Day." The government has had a long-standing, zero-tolerance policy against discrimination of homosexuals in the workplace. Well, on Tuesday, special counsel Scott J. Bloch, who has a history of shady government business practices to begin with, testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs subcommittee on oversight of government management. In his testimony, he told the committee that there was absolutely no legal recourse for said discrimination. To wit, if an employee is fired, reassigned or harassed because of that employee's sexual orientation, there is absolutely nothing that the government can do about it. He claims that due to court rulings, sexual orientation is not considered a "protected class," like race, creed, age, political affiliation and disability. Despite the White House mandate, should a government employee wish to press charges, there is nothing that the Office of Special Counsel can do for that employee. Perhaps this is simply an oversight, or more likely it's lip service by the administration, saying something they'd like to believe is true, pandering to the religious right, with no justification at all.
If It Walks Like a Duck... In recently declassified documents from 2002, the FBI wrote that detainees in Guantanamo Bay had accused their American jailers of flushing the Qur'an down a toilet. And it appears that this incident has happened on numerous occasions. If true, you've got to know that no one will be held accountable for it. Come on, if the top brass at the Pentagon can escape reprisals from a little thing like Abu Ghraib, does anyone really expect there to be military fallout over this? We wonder if McClellan will even mention his bashing of Newsweek. Perhaps it is just our cynicism showing, but we hope none of these turn out to be true. In the world's eyes, America's stock is very low - can we really afford to let it fall any lower?
New Ethics Cloud Over Leading Republican DeLay. Hey, remember Tom DeLay? You know, the #2 Republican in the House of Representatives? Tom's been pretty quiet since the whole Schiavo thing blew up in his face, most likely hoping that the heat against him would die down. Unfortunately for DeLay, a Texas judge ruled today that a committee formed by the powerful Republican had violated state law by failing to disclose $600,000 in mostly corporate donations. The suit was brought filed by five Democratic candidates defeated in 2002 by Republicans. The Repulicans in question received money from "Texans for a Republican Majority," a political action committee founded by DeLay to help Republicans capture the Texas Legislature. The judge awarded the Democrats $196,660 in damages, but the case wasn't really about the money. It was about DeLay using any underhanded tactict he could find to win. First this, and then the re-districting in 2004. Although DeLay was not a defendant in the suit, he can't get far enough away from the taint of being associated with it. We haven't forgotten about DeLay's questionable ethics, and we hope you haven't, either.
Editorials
Dean On Abortion. We're starting to see a new stance on abortion from Democrats, and we couldn't be happier. Well, it's not exactly "new," so much as "actually being explained correctly." Howard Dean was on Meet the Press last weekend, and explained that Democrats aren't "pro-abortion." Nobody is "pro-abortion." Democrats believe that a woman should have the right to choose, period. As Jack O'Toole writes, the argument shouldn't be that 'giving birth and having an abortion are morally equivalent.' The argument should be, as Dean says, 'The painful and difficuly choice of having an abortion should be the choice of the woman involved.' Between this mindset, and Hilary's recent comments about wanting to do more for prevention (while still keeping abortion legal), Democrats just might get through to the right, or at least to the center, which would be nice.
A Troubled Hunt. There's a question that we've been wondering about- why IS bin Laden still alive? If we're so effective at capturing his #2 man, his #3 man (twice!), and so on, why have we not caught him? 3 3/4 years since 9/11, and we're no closer to finding him than we were when we started. Are Pakistanis helping as well as they could be? Is the Afghan government hiding intelligence? Does bin Laden have an Invisibility Cloak? Whatever the reason is, we honestly can't remember the last time Bush said the name "Osama bin Laden," much less heard information about the hunt for him. Certainly, the MSM holds some small fault as well, for not asking these questions. Don't you care? Or are you "over" it?
Caesar and Stem Cells. The White House will veto it, and there weren't enough votes to overturn the eventual veto, but the ever since the House passed the stem cell research bill, pro-lifers and right-wingers have re-found their voice. Jerry and Joe Long discuss the pro-pre-life fascination with saving "life," at the cost of life. The worst part? No one seems to care. If more people honestly cared about stem cell research, more people would have come out to vote in for the Democratic candidate in 2004. Certainly, more than the 122 million that did vote. And we know Americans know how to vote - after all, more than 500 million of them voted over the course of this year's American Idol season. Maybe if we allowed people to dial an 800 number for their candidate in the next election...
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December 29, 2005
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Thursday's Links
Activism
Tom DeLay's back in the news - see news item #3 for details. We're getting pretty sick of writing about Tom DeLay's questionable ethics behavior. So, you be the judge of who's in DeLay's pocket. The Public Campaign Action Fund has created a chart of member of Congress, and how much they are "in" with DeLay": How often they voted with him, how much DeLay's PAC has given their campaign, how much they've donated to DeLay, etc. Check out the list here. Find out where your representatives rank, and then contact them, if need be, to find out why they associate themselves with unethical people like DeLay. We need to make it completely unacceptable for anyone associated with DeLay to continue to serve in Congress.
News
"I'm Learning New Things Every Day." The government has had a long-standing, zero-tolerance policy against discrimination of homosexuals in the workplace. Well, on Tuesday, special counsel Scott J. Bloch, who has a history of shady government business practices to begin with, testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs subcommittee on oversight of government management. In his testimony, he told the committee that there was absolutely no legal recourse for said discrimination. To wit, if an employee is fired, reassigned or harassed because of that employee's sexual orientation, there is absolutely nothing that the government can do about it. He claims that due to court rulings, sexual orientation is not considered a "protected class," like race, creed, age, political affiliation and disability. Despite the White House mandate, should a government employee wish to press charges, there is nothing that the Office of Special Counsel can do for that employee. Perhaps this is simply an oversight, or more likely it's lip service by the administration, saying something they'd like to believe is true, pandering to the religious right, with no justification at all.
If It Walks Like a Duck... In recently declassified documents from 2002, the FBI wrote that detainees in Guantanamo Bay had accused their American jailers of flushing the Qur'an down a toilet. And it appears that this incident has happened on numerous occasions. If true, you've got to know that no one will be held accountable for it. Come on, if the top brass at the Pentagon can escape reprisals from a little thing like Abu Ghraib, does anyone really expect there to be military fallout over this? We wonder if McClellan will even mention his bashing of Newsweek. Perhaps it is just our cynicism showing, but we hope none of these turn out to be true. In the world's eyes, America's stock is very low - can we really afford to let it fall any lower?
New Ethics Cloud Over Leading Republican DeLay. Hey, remember Tom DeLay? You know, the #2 Republican in the House of Representatives? Tom's been pretty quiet since the whole Schiavo thing blew up in his face, most likely hoping that the heat against him would die down. Unfortunately for DeLay, a Texas judge ruled today that a committee formed by the powerful Republican had violated state law by failing to disclose $600,000 in mostly corporate donations. The suit was brought filed by five Democratic candidates defeated in 2002 by Republicans. The Repulicans in question received money from "Texans for a Republican Majority," a political action committee founded by DeLay to help Republicans capture the Texas Legislature. The judge awarded the Democrats $196,660 in damages, but the case wasn't really about the money. It was about DeLay using any underhanded tactict he could find to win. First this, and then the re-districting in 2004. Although DeLay was not a defendant in the suit, he can't get far enough away from the taint of being associated with it. We haven't forgotten about DeLay's questionable ethics, and we hope you haven't, either.
Editorials
Dean On Abortion. We're starting to see a new stance on abortion from Democrats, and we couldn't be happier. Well, it's not exactly "new," so much as "actually being explained correctly." Howard Dean was on Meet the Press last weekend, and explained that Democrats aren't "pro-abortion." Nobody is "pro-abortion." Democrats believe that a woman should have the right to choose, period. As Jack O'Toole writes, the argument shouldn't be that 'giving birth and having an abortion are morally equivalent.' The argument should be, as Dean says, 'The painful and difficuly choice of having an abortion should be the choice of the woman involved.' Between this mindset, and Hilary's recent comments about wanting to do more for prevention (while still keeping abortion legal), Democrats just might get through to the right, or at least to the center, which would be nice.
A Troubled Hunt. There's a question that we've been wondering about- why IS bin Laden still alive? If we're so effective at capturing his #2 man, his #3 man (twice!), and so on, why have we not caught him? 3 3/4 years since 9/11, and we're no closer to finding him than we were when we started. Are Pakistanis helping as well as they could be? Is the Afghan government hiding intelligence? Does bin Laden have an Invisibility Cloak? Whatever the reason is, we honestly can't remember the last time Bush said the name "Osama bin Laden," much less heard information about the hunt for him. Certainly, the MSM holds some small fault as well, for not asking these questions. Don't you care? Or are you "over" it?
Caesar and Stem Cells. The White House will veto it, and there weren't enough votes to overturn the eventual veto, but the ever since the House passed the stem cell research bill, pro-lifers and right-wingers have re-found their voice. Jerry and Joe Long discuss the pro-pre-life fascination with saving "life," at the cost of life. The worst part? No one seems to care. If more people honestly cared about stem cell research, more people would have come out to vote in for the Democratic candidate in 2004. Certainly, more than the 122 million that did vote. And we know Americans know how to vote - after all, more than 500 million of them voted over the course of this year's American Idol season. Maybe if we allowed people to dial an 800 number for their candidate in the next election...
|
December 29, 2005
Tom DeLay's back in the news - see news item #3 for details. We're getting pretty sick of writing about Tom DeLay's questionable ethics behavior. So, you be the judge of who's in DeLay's pocket. The Public Campaign Action Fund has created a chart of member of Congress, and how much they are "in" with DeLay": How often they voted with him, how much DeLay's PAC has given their campaign, how much they've donated to DeLay, etc. Check out the list here. Find out where your representatives rank, and then contact them, if need be, to find out why they associate themselves with unethical people like DeLay. We need to make it completely unacceptable for anyone associated with DeLay to continue to serve in Congress.
News
"I'm Learning New Things Every Day." The government has had a long-standing, zero-tolerance policy against discrimination of homosexuals in the workplace. Well, on Tuesday, special counsel Scott J. Bloch, who has a history of shady government business practices to begin with, testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs subcommittee on oversight of government management. In his testimony, he told the committee that there was absolutely no legal recourse for said discrimination. To wit, if an employee is fired, reassigned or harassed because of that employee's sexual orientation, there is absolutely nothing that the government can do about it. He claims that due to court rulings, sexual orientation is not considered a "protected class," like race, creed, age, political affiliation and disability. Despite the White House mandate, should a government employee wish to press charges, there is nothing that the Office of Special Counsel can do for that employee. Perhaps this is simply an oversight, or more likely it's lip service by the administration, saying something they'd like to believe is true, pandering to the religious right, with no justification at all.
If It Walks Like a Duck... In recently declassified documents from 2002, the FBI wrote that detainees in Guantanamo Bay had accused their American jailers of flushing the Qur'an down a toilet. And it appears that this incident has happened on numerous occasions. If true, you've got to know that no one will be held accountable for it. Come on, if the top brass at the Pentagon can escape reprisals from a little thing like Abu Ghraib, does anyone really expect there to be military fallout over this? We wonder if McClellan will even mention his bashing of Newsweek. Perhaps it is just our cynicism showing, but we hope none of these turn out to be true. In the world's eyes, America's stock is very low - can we really afford to let it fall any lower?
New Ethics Cloud Over Leading Republican DeLay. Hey, remember Tom DeLay? You know, the #2 Republican in the House of Representatives? Tom's been pretty quiet since the whole Schiavo thing blew up in his face, most likely hoping that the heat against him would die down. Unfortunately for DeLay, a Texas judge ruled today that a committee formed by the powerful Republican had violated state law by failing to disclose $600,000 in mostly corporate donations. The suit was brought filed by five Democratic candidates defeated in 2002 by Republicans. The Repulicans in question received money from "Texans for a Republican Majority," a political action committee founded by DeLay to help Republicans capture the Texas Legislature. The judge awarded the Democrats $196,660 in damages, but the case wasn't really about the money. It was about DeLay using any underhanded tactict he could find to win. First this, and then the re-districting in 2004. Although DeLay was not a defendant in the suit, he can't get far enough away from the taint of being associated with it. We haven't forgotten about DeLay's questionable ethics, and we hope you haven't, either.
Editorials
Dean On Abortion. We're starting to see a new stance on abortion from Democrats, and we couldn't be happier. Well, it's not exactly "new," so much as "actually being explained correctly." Howard Dean was on Meet the Press last weekend, and explained that Democrats aren't "pro-abortion." Nobody is "pro-abortion." Democrats believe that a woman should have the right to choose, period. As Jack O'Toole writes, the argument shouldn't be that 'giving birth and having an abortion are morally equivalent.' The argument should be, as Dean says, 'The painful and difficuly choice of having an abortion should be the choice of the woman involved.' Between this mindset, and Hilary's recent comments about wanting to do more for prevention (while still keeping abortion legal), Democrats just might get through to the right, or at least to the center, which would be nice.
A Troubled Hunt. There's a question that we've been wondering about- why IS bin Laden still alive? If we're so effective at capturing his #2 man, his #3 man (twice!), and so on, why have we not caught him? 3 3/4 years since 9/11, and we're no closer to finding him than we were when we started. Are Pakistanis helping as well as they could be? Is the Afghan government hiding intelligence? Does bin Laden have an Invisibility Cloak? Whatever the reason is, we honestly can't remember the last time Bush said the name "Osama bin Laden," much less heard information about the hunt for him. Certainly, the MSM holds some small fault as well, for not asking these questions. Don't you care? Or are you "over" it?
Caesar and Stem Cells. The White House will veto it, and there weren't enough votes to overturn the eventual veto, but the ever since the House passed the stem cell research bill, pro-lifers and right-wingers have re-found their voice. Jerry and Joe Long discuss the pro-pre-life fascination with saving "life," at the cost of life. The worst part? No one seems to care. If more people honestly cared about stem cell research, more people would have come out to vote in for the Democratic candidate in 2004. Certainly, more than the 122 million that did vote. And we know Americans know how to vote - after all, more than 500 million of them voted over the course of this year's American Idol season. Maybe if we allowed people to dial an 800 number for their candidate in the next election...
